Page 81 of The Gathering Storm (Morland Dynasty #36)

The Robbs were able to be generous to their daughter, since all the expense of the wedding ceremony and wedding breakfast had been taken off their shoulders, and it was they who bought the little second-hand Morris 8, two years old, one careful owner, and also paid for the honeymoon.

Jeremy’s brother John was the best man – he worked at Hanbury’s garage and it took him a week to get his hands and nails clean enough, a week during which Mr Hanbury kindly put him on driving-only duties, and John looked on like a cat watching birds through the window while other employees plunged their heads under bonnets and crawled under chassis.

Alec had been persuaded, through a shocking level of bribery, necessary because he was almost eight and said he was too old to be subjected to silk stockings, to be a page-boy.

He complained bitterly right up to the day itself, but then found he rather liked being the centre of attention.

He didn’t like having his hair ruffled and being told he looked ‘sweet’, but he discovered the plaudits often came with tips – Mr Robb excelled himself and pressed a half-crown into Alec’s hand – which all went towards the construction kit he was saving for.

The groom’s sister Roberta came to the wedding, having asked if she could bring her employer, Mrs Maddox, as a guest. Polly said yes, though it seemed an odd request. She thought she understood better on the day when the pair turned up, with Roberta driving Mrs Maddox’s motor.

She had grown tall and handsome since leaving home to work in the racing stables at Stillington, but she was very slim and probably, Polly guessed, rode at no more than nine stone.

Her hair was cropped as short as a boy’s, but was curly enough to pass muster with her mother.

She and Mrs Maddox were both wearing light tweed suits, the jackets cut rather like hacking jackets – Polly wondered if they served a dual purpose – and in them they looked like sisters.

Polly immediately felt the closeness between them.

Roberta had gone as a management trainee six years ago, but from the way they stood together, a little apart from everyone else, and talked together in low voices, and managed to exchange information with looks alone, she thought they were more like a married couple.

Ethel bustled up to get Roberta to talk about how well she was doing, wanting something to boast about, but Roberta would only talk about the horses, and how well they were doing.

She had the habit of referring her comments to Mrs Maddox: ‘Didn’t he, Hilary?

’ and ‘Don’t they, Hilary?’ and ‘Was that in ’thirty-five or ’thirty-six, Hilary?

’ Mrs Maddox didn’t talk much, but she smiled a lot, and when she did speak, it was to praise, so everyone thought well of her.

When the wedding feast was finally over, the young couple set off for Scarborough, Jeremy looking very proud behind the wheel of the Morris 8.

Polly, waving them off, thought Miss Robb, now Mrs Jeremy Compton, looked relieved as much as anything.

Ethel retired to a sofa, claiming exhaustion, and indulged herself in comfortable tears.

And, seeing it was June and wouldn’t be dark until ten o’clock, Polly escaped upstairs, changed into riding clothes, collected the dogs and went round to the stables, saddled Zephyr, and cantered away into the green and glowing evening.

* * *

Lennie stepped down from the carriage and saw Polly waiting exactly opposite him.

It was an overcast, humid August day, and she was wearing a fitted silk dress in milk-chocolate brown figured with white, a belted waist, slightly flared skirt to just below the knee and cap sleeves, white gloves and a small hat with a very long pheasant feather. His heart swelled.

‘How did you manage to be waiting in just the right place?’ he called, instead of saying what was in his heart and embarrassing himself.

‘I know where the first class stops, of course.’

She looked at him uncertainly for a moment, then he put down his valise and held out his arms to her, and it seemed perfectly natural to step into them instead of shaking hands.

He was a sort of cousin and she had known him nearly all her life, after all.

And Americans, she knew, were much more demonstrative than the English.

It felt good to be held against his strong male body.

His grey overcoat, made from the lightest, softest wool, was delicious against her cheek, and he smelt lovely. She had forgotten how tall he was.

Lennie held her slender body close, closed his eyes, and ached. Then forced himself to release her.

‘You’re all on your own?’ she said, looking up at him and automatically straightening her hair.

‘Yes, everyone else comes tomorrow. I wanted to make sure everything was all right before they descend on you.’

‘I was half expecting to see elephants and camels in special loose boxes, and clowns leaning out of the windows.’

‘It’s a film company, not a circus,’ he reminded her.

‘I know, but I’m so excited, my mind keeps giving me circus images. Will we have to meet them from the train?’

‘No, Dorothy Fitch will have arranged transport. You’re not to worry about anything – she’s tremendously efficient. Just enjoy the ride.’

‘I will. Let’s go – where’s your luggage?’

The car was parked outside. ‘That’s a big beast,’ Lennie remarked. ‘Is it new?’ It was a Vauxhall GY saloon in maroon-and-black.

‘I got it last year,’ she said. ‘I wanted something with plenty of room. It’s got a big engine – pulls like a lorry up hills.

’ There were three dogs in the back, jostling to hang their heads out of the window.

He could see what looked like a forest of waving tails.

‘You don’t mind them, do you? They insisted on coming.

They never go in front so those seats are quite clean. ’

He laughed. ‘It wouldn’t be a real Morland Place welcome without dogs,’ he said.

The luggage stowed, they settled in and she drove off.

There was a little silence, but she was concentrating on the traffic and getting out of the station yard onto Queen Street.

Her gloved hands on the wheel looked strong; her bare arms, between the cuff of the gloves and the sleeves of her dress, were brown.

‘Everyone’s terribly excited about this whole thing,’ she said at last.

‘It’s very good of you to let the company come,’ he said.

‘Good of me? They’re paying me a fortune!’

‘I’m sure it’s not a fortune.’

‘Maybe not to an American, but it seems one to me, especially as I don’t have to do anything for it.’

‘Dorothy will make sure there’s no damage,’ he said, ‘and I’ll keep an eye on things too.’

‘I had the estate carpenter look at the drawbridge, and John – you know, Robbie’s son?

He works in the motor trade – John found a mechanic to check the machinery.

It was funny, really, virtually every male in the house, plus the grooms from the stables, found an excuse to be in the yard that day.

Men are so fascinated by anything mechanical!

Anyway, it was all in surprisingly good order, just needed oiling and a bit of tightening up here and there.

But you know, don’t you, that it doesn’t just drop down?

It descends quite slowly. The script you sent me – thanks for that, by the way – seems to have people dashing across seconds after the order’s given. ’

‘Don’t worry about that,’ Lennie said. ‘You can do anything with cameras. They’ll just cut from starting to lower it to the dashing part. You’ll never know from the finished film how long it took.’ They were out on Blossom Street now, and the traffic moved freely. He took a breath. ‘Polly—’

She anticipated him. ‘I never heard from you for months, years. I was so hurt. You were supposed to come and visit, and then you weren’t coming, and then – silence.’

‘You came to New York on the Queen Mary , and never told me you were coming. I could have flown across to meet you there if you’d told me. So I supposed you didn’t want to see me.’

‘I thought you didn’t want to see me .’

‘I’ve never changed the way I feel about you,’ he said, and managed to stop there.

‘Oh,’ she said. ‘It seems we’ve been at cross purposes.’

‘It does. I was so glad you said yes to ABO’s proposal. I thought you’d forgiven whatever it was I’d done and we could make a fresh start.’

And, to his immense relief, she laughed. ‘Oh dear, how silly and awkward it sounds now – positively childish! And what a waste of time it all was!’ She glanced at him. ‘Now I’m actually with you, I can’t imagine how I could ever have supposed—’

‘Me too,’ he said.

‘Can we forget it ever happened, and pretend we’re just the same as when we last met?’

‘Okay by me.’

‘“Okay by me”. You’re very American. I forget. I always think of you as being English.’

‘It will wear off,’ he said. ‘By the time I’ve been here a week I’ll sound as English as you.’

There was another little pause, as Polly thought, Only a week!

His life is in America. He’ll go back . I mustn’t get too comfortable with him .

She cast about for something to say. ‘Jessie and Bertie are coming to dinner tonight, and the children. They can’t wait to see you.

Jessie’s particularly glad that you’re hiring horses from her, though of course any pleasure is tinged with anxiety, because they’re all her babies.

She worries that you may make them fall over, the way they do in cowboy films.’

‘We won’t. Horses have to be specially trained to fall like that – otherwise they could hurt themselves.’

‘I’m glad to hear it. I hate to see it on a film myself – all I can think is, Oh, the poor horses.’

He smiled at her. ‘Tender-hearted Polly.’

She looked away, biting her lip. After a moment she said lightly, ‘It’s such a long time since you were at Morland Place, I wonder if you’ll notice any changes.’